1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a computerized system for self-service shopping whereby customers, when purchasing items, need not check individual items through a check-out counter.
2. Description of the Prior Art
At present stores and markets selling merchandise and foodstuffs allow customers to pick items off shelves and deposit them into shopping carts. When the customer completes his selection of items, he checks his purchases through a check-out counter and receives a receipt which has recorded the price of each item. The customer then pays for the items which are bagged and the customer leaves with his purchases. This shopping method can be very time-consuming due to lengthy waiting periods in check-out counter lines.
Several advances in self-service shopping have been developed combining convenience to the shopper with cost savings to the retailer. One such development is an electronic scanner which reads line-encoded information printed on individual products and registers the identity of each product. The line code has been standardized industry-wide by the adoption of the Universal Product Code. This information is transmitted to a store's central computer which has the price of the identified item within its memory bank which then transmits this information back to the cash register or point-of-sale terminal where it is flashed on a screen and printed on a receipt. These computerized cash registers form a significant improvement in the art, but their utilization does not eliminate the need for individual product check-out at the check-out counter. Another significant advance in self-service shopping has been the invention of shopping carts designed to record the cost of items once they have been removed from the shelf. These shopping carts such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,836,755 not only have scanning means to read line-encoded data on individual items, but also record the weight of an item as it is deposited in the cart and compare it with the known weight of that item. Further systems of automated shopping have been developed whereby a shopper can select a tag or computer-readable card which has either a picture and/or description of the item printed thereon, deposit the tags or cards in a central location within the store and the selected items will be automatically collected and forwarded to the customer with the total of his purchases already set out, all without the customer having to take them individually off the shelves and further, without the customer having to individually check each item out at a check-out counter. Such an automatic selection system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,532,184 and related patents.
Although the above inventions have been available for use, the retail industry has made little progress in utilizing such systems in their retail operations. Many retailers feel that shoppers will be reluctant to change their basic patterns of shopping and that shoppers have a natural fear and distrust of computer technology.
The computerized shopping system of this invention is designed to eliminate the check-out procedure of individual items by utilizing some of the technology discussed above combined with particular novel refinements to instill confidence in the shopper that computers are not making errors in the totaling of this purchases.